Introducing the FeedSmart WordPress Plugin for FeedBlitz

FeedBurner migration to FeedBlitz just got less stressful for WordPress users. Announcing FeedSmart, which captures all RSS traffic to your WP site, and routes it through your FeedBlitz RSS feed. FeedSmart is our equivalent to FeedBurner's venerable FeedSmith plugin, and is complimentary to our email subscription plugin that makes it easy to sign up new subscribers while they comment.

Now you can capture all your RSS stats with FeedBlitz, regardless of whether the subscriber is following your FeedBlitz feed or your Wordpress blog's "native" feed URL. You don't have to change your native blog feed URLs either, making migration seamless for your RSS subscribers. Your feed stays on your domain, which also allows you to switch out of FeedBlitz in the future if you want, so you're not locked in (hey, it keeps us on our toes - we like that! That's why we're innovating and those other guys aren't). You get the power of our feed hosting, splices, social media integration, stable stats, technical support and much more - and none of the hassle.

FeedBlitz RSS feeds require a premium account at FeedBlitz or an active trial; if you use FeedBlitz just for RSS subscriber tracking you get all this feedy goodness for only $1.49 a month after the trial ends (less if you're an existing free service user, click here for discount info). Start a trial today.

   

Get More Wordpress Email Subscriptions

FeedBlitz's WordPress email marketing subscription plugin has been updated to help WordPress bloggers grow their email subscription lists much more quickly.

The new version of the plugin (download the wordpress email subscription zip file) adds a "get updates by email" option to comment forms. The commenter can join your list while they're making a comment with a single extra click without interrupting the comment submission workflow. It's fully compatible with other WP comment plugins such as the ever-popular CommentLuv, as shown in the screenshot below.



WordPress sites with active comment threads should find this accelerates organic list growth significantly - and it's safe, because if the commenter is already on the list we won't redundantly ask them to sign up time and again; important for your regular commenters.

To prevent abuse and spam, FeedBlitz still requires dual opt-in, so it's best practice email marketing list management. But it's a very "low friction" user experience up front. The plug in also adds the checkbox to the user registration form for your blog, so if you require visitors to register first you can get them there as well. Here's an example:

It's customizable, easy to set up and a great way to grow that subscription database. All you need to do is download it and link it to one of your FeedBlitz mailing lists.

UPDATE: (I should have done this in the original posting and apologize unreservedly to Andy for not doing so). Andy at CommentLuv helped out by writing the commenting addition; full credit to him for the great implementation.

   

New WordPress Email Plugin Integrates Subscriber and User Registration

UPDATE! This plugin now also adds "subscribe" checkboxes to your comment forms too! Click here http://blog.feedblitz.com/2010/08/get-more-wordpress-email-subscriptions.html for the news

I'm pleased to announce a public beta of FeedBlitz's very first WordPress plugin!

The FeedBlitz "Member Mail" plugin enables hosted WordPress blogs to integrate email newsletter signup with the user registration screen. With the plugin activated, the visitor selects a "subscribe me" checkbox when they register for an account on your site (see the example on the left). As well as registering the user, enabling the FeedBlitz checkbox seamlessly starts FeedBlitz's mandatory dual opt-in email subscription process.

You get the benefit of simplifying the subscription process for visitors, thereby greatly increasing the odds of gaining a subscriber as well as a user. Crucially, you get all this without having to work with the FeedBlitz API, which up until now was the only way to achieve this effect. Instead, just drop in the plugin, activate it and you're up and running.

You can also customize the text next to the checkbox. However, like all WordPress plugins, it won't work on wordpress.com sites. It only offers email subscriptions to your blog (so no IM or Twitter options). The plugin also does not eliminate the need for a regular subscription form or link on every page of your blog, since you want to be able to capture subscribers who aren't users, are visiting directly from search engines, or who are already users who will never go have cause to go back through the registration process. You can generate a new RSS to email subscription form at any time at Newsletters - Forms - Subscription Forms.

We've tested it on WordPress 2.7 but I see no reason right now why it shouldn't work on 2.5 or later (no doubt someone will tell me if I'm wrong :-) ). Support via the usual channels, comments welcome. You do of course have to have an active FeedBlitz account and an RSS to email newsletter set up. Links to help you with this are in the plugin configuration screen.

Download the FeedBlitz WordPress plugin here.

One final note: Thank you to Jenn Mattern (follow her on Twitter @queryfreewriter) for helping kick the tires pre-release.